Eric Heisserer signs up to pen Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Sandman

A feature film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series has been in the works since the 90's but has always found itself languishing in various stages of development hell. The latest attempt at bringing "Sandman" to life is in the hands of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is attached to direct and star in the film, and David Goyer. SANDMAN has already had several screenwriters involved over the past few years, including Jack Thorne (The Fades), and THR reports that the latest writer to lend his voice to SANDMAN will be Eric Heisserer.

Heisserer is best known for his work on the remakes of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and THE THING, but his upcoming projects look a little more promising as they include Denis Villeneuve's upcoming sci-fi drama STORY OF YOUR LIFE which is set to star Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. It's not clear when production on SANDMAN will begin, but last year David Goyer seemed confident that SANDMAN should kick off sometime this year. During last years Spike TV Guys Choice Awards, Joseph Gordon-Levitt described SANDMAN as a "grand, spectacular action film."

Big spectacular action movies are generally about, like, crime fighters fighting crime and blowing shit up. This has nothing to do with that. It was actually one of the things that Neil Gaiman said to me, he said 'Don’t have him punch anything.’ Because he never does. If you read the comics, Morpheus doesn’t punch anybody. That’s not what he does. And so, it’s going to be like a grand, spectacular action film, but that relies on none of those same old ordinary cliches.